The issue of Network Neutrality is heating up more and more each day. There is an ongoing battle between internet service providers (ISP’s) and websites like Google and Yahoo! as to whether or not Net Neutrality laws should be passed. What is it? ‘’Net Neutrality prevents the companies that control the wires bringing you the Internet from discriminating against content based on its ownership or source.’’ What does this mean? It means that without Net Neutrality, your ISP could speed up or slow down your internet connection, or even block you from using some internet services or features. They could also charge you more money based on your internet usage.
So what is the debate exactly? ISP’s want to charge or tax big websites like Google in order to deliver content quickly to us. ISP’s want to speed up their own content (think Time Warner/AOL’s homepage) and they want to slow down their competitors. Some say they that ISP’s would even go as far as to block out websites that are on the opposite ends of their political agendas. Google, eBay, Amazon.com and many others feel that this is absurd, and everyone should have equal access to websites and features on the internet.
So what is at stake and who will this affect? In addition to affecting websites like Google and Yahoo! to name a few, it would also affect us, the consumer. Imagine you are trying to access the website for an anti-abortion campaign, but the webpage mysteriously fails to load. What if you’re trying to watch streaming videos on Youtube, but they take forever to load. What if it took you 5 days to download a movie from BitTorrent, if you were even allowed to download it at all. You may no longer be able to get your news from MSN.com because its political affiliations aren’t the same as your ISP. All of these are possible outcomes if Net Neutrality is overlooked. Additionally, if we can’t view the content above, or use the services like BitTorrent, these companies and many more could be put out of business.
If you haven’t figured it out already, I am for Net Neutrality. After reading the assigned material and a few other sources, it is fairly easy to see that ISP’s are simply trying to make more money as well as advance their own interests. Time Warner has its own internet phone service, why would they want us to use Vonage? Comcast has its own internet homepage, why would they want us to look at Yahoo! or MSN.com? ISP’s are well aware that many people use websites like eBay and Amazon.com so it makes sense that they would try to coax these websites into paying the ISP’s to deliver their content more quickly than others. I don’t like the idea that someone else could potentially pick and choose which information can be delivered to me. It takes away the principle that the internet was founded on and everyone should have equal and complete access to it.
Net Neutrality is a very serious issue and is already starting to affect consumers just like us. Comcast has already started to block file sharing by cancelling uploads of complete files. If the person who is sending you a music file is suddenly cut off, you can’t download it, can you? An ISP in
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3 comments:
Down with life without net neutrality! The internet is slow enough as it is and pages already take forever to load.
yeah good point, (to the comment above). the internet doesn't need any more conflicts or issues with the ones it already possesses now. things don't need to be blown out of proportion.
I'm all for the internet being neutral, all this is about is the corporate giants trying to make more and more money. Good post.
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